TWO New Zealand families have succeeded in their 12-year legal action against US chemical corporation DuPont for the serious birth defects suffered by their children.
The Ison family’s Blake was born in 1993 with no eyes and a double cleft palate after his mother was exposed to the fungicide Benlate while working as a Christchurch City Council parks worker before his birth.
The Reilly family’s son Jesse Hanham died in 1998 aged seven. Together, the two families united with four British families to file a lawsuit against DuPont.
The case went to the US Supreme Court three times, until the company announced a tentative settlement for $9.24m in May 2007 for the six original plaintiffs and another 26 families with similar claims.
The Isons moved to Queensland in 2007, but have remained silent because of a “media freeze”. However, they say the company got away with “the minimum amount possible”, although money was not the main objective of the lawsuit; they successfully got Benlate taken off the market.

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